The European migrant crisis,[2][3][4][5][6] also known as the refugee crisis,[7][8][9][10] was a period characterised by high numbers of people arriving in the European Union (EU) from across the Mediterranean Sea or overland through Southeast Europe.[11][12] The migrant crisis was part of a pattern of increased immigration to Europe from other continents which began in the mid-20th century.[13] Between January 2015 and March 2016, according to the UNHCR, the top three nationalities among over one million Mediterranean Sea arrivals were Syrian refugees (46.7%), Afghan refugees (20.9%) and Iraqi refugees (9.4%).[14] Opposition to immigration in many European countries appeared to result partly from the socio-economic threat they were perceived to represent.[13]

The majority of people arriving in Italy and Greece especially have been from countries mired in war (Syrian civil war (2011present), War in Afghanistan (2001present), Iraqi conflict (2003present)) or which otherwise are considered to be 'refugee-producing' and for whom international protection is needed. However, a smaller proportion is from elsewhere, and for many of these individuals, the term 'migrant' would be correct. Immigrants (a person from a non-EU country establishing his or her usual residence in the territory of an EU country for a period that is, or is expected to be, at least twelve months) include asylum seekers and economic migrants.[15] Some research suggested that record population growth in Africa and the Middle East was one of the drivers of the crisis,[16] and it was also suggested that global warming could increase migratory pressures in the future.[17][18][19] In rare cases, immigration has been a cover for Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants disguised as refugees or migrants.[20][21]

Most of the migrants came from regions south and east of Europe, including the Greater Middle East and Africa.[22] Of the migrants arriving in Europe by sea in 2015, 58% were males over 18 years of age (77% of adults), 17% were females over 18 (22% of adults) and the remaining 25% were under 18.[23] By religious affiliation, the majority of entrants were Muslim, with a small component of non-Muslim minorities (including Yazidis, Assyrians and Mandeans). The number of deaths at sea rose to record levels in April 2015, when five boats carrying almost 2,000 migrants to Europe sank in the Mediterranean Sea, with a combined death toll estimated at more than 1,200 people.[24] The shipwrecks took place in a context of ongoing conflicts and refugee crises in several Asian and African countries, which increased the total number of forcibly displaced people worldwide at the end of 2014 to almost 60 million, the highest level since World War II.[25][26]

The EU Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) uses the terms "illegal" and "irregular" border crossings for crossings of an EU external border but not at an official border-crossing point (BCP).[38] These include the entrance into Europe of people rescued at sea and brought to land by EU citizens.[39] The total number of such illegal EU external border crossings can be higher than the number of migrants newly illegally arriving in the EU in a certain year, as becomes clear in Table 1, especially for the years 2015 and 2016. News media sometimes misrepresent these correct figures as given by Frontex.[40]

After October 2013, when Italy started rescuing Africans from the Mediterranean Sea with a rescue program called 'Mare Nostrum' ('Our Sea'), the numbers of refugees arriving in Europe began to rise.[41]

Factors cited as immediate triggers or causes of the sudden and massive increase in migrant numbers in the summer of 2015 along the Eastern Mediterranean and Western Balkan route (Turkey-Greece-North Macedonia-Serbia-Hungary) include:

The opening of the North Macedonia route enabled migrants from the Middle East to take very short, inexpensive voyages from the coast of Turkey to the Greek Islands, instead of the far longer, more perilous, and far more expensive voyage from Libya to Italy. According to the Washington Post, in addition to reducing danger, this lowered the cost from around $56,000 to $23,000.[42]

On 18 June 2015 the government of North Macedonia announced that it was changing its policy on migrants entering the country illegally. Previously, migrants were forbidden from transiting North Macedonia, causing those who chose to do so to take perilous, clandestine modes of transit, such as walking along railroad tracks at night. Beginning in June, migrants were given three-day, temporary asylum permits, enabling them to travel by train and road.[43][42]

In the summer of 2015, several thousand people passed through North Macedonia and Serbia every day, and more than 100,000 had done so by July.[44] Hungary started building the border fence with Serbia. Both states were overwhelmed organizationally and economically. In August 2015, a police crackdown on migrants crossing from Greece failed in North Macedonia, causing the police to instead turn their attention to diverting migrants north, into Serbia.[45] On 18 October 2015, Slovenia began restricting admission to 2,500 migrants per day, stranding migrants in Croatia as well as Serbia and North Macedonia.[46][47] The humanitarian conditions were catastrophic; Refugees were waiting for illegal helpers at illegal assembly points without any infrastructure.[48][49]

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad blamed Europe and the United States for the migrant crisis, saying most of the refugees are fleeing the "terrorism" that he accuses the West of fomenting by supporting elements of the Syrian opposition. Meanwhile, the Syrian government announced increased military conscription, and simultaneously made it easier for Syrians to obtain passports, leading Middle East policy experts to speculate that he was implementing a policy to encourage opponents of his regime to "leave the country".[42]

NATO's four-star General in the United States Air Force commander in Europe stated on the issue of indiscriminate weapons used by Bashar al-Assad, and the non-precision use of weapons by the Russian forces are the reason which cause refugees to be on the move.[50] Gen. Philip Breedlove accused Russia and the Assad regime of "deliberately weaponizing migration in an attempt to overwhelm European structures and break European resolve".[50]

Between 2007 and 2011, large numbers of migrants from the Middle East and Africa crossed between Turkey and Greece, leading Greece and the European Border Protection agency Frontex to upgrade border controls.[55] In 2012, immigrant influx into Greece by land decreased by 95 percent after the construction of a fence on that part of the GreekTurkish frontier which does not follow the course of the Maritsa River.[56] In 2015, Bulgaria followed by upgrading a border fence to prevent migrant flows through Turkey.[57][58]

Between 2010 and 2013, around 1.4 million non-EU nationals, asylum seekers and refugees not included, immigrated in the EU each year, while around 750,000 of such non-EU nationals emigrated from the EU in those years, resulting in around 650,000 net immigration each year, but decreasing from 750,000 to 540,000 between 2010 and 2013.[51]

Prior to 2014, the number of asylum applications in the EU peaked in 1992 (672,000), 2001 (424,000) and 2013 (431,000). In 2014 it reached 626,000.[59] According to the UNHCR, the EU countries with the biggest numbers of recognised refugees at the end of 2014 were France (252,264), Germany (216,973), Sweden (142,207) and the United Kingdom (117,161). No European state was among the top ten refugee-hosting countries in the world.[25]

Prior to 2014, the number of illegal border crossings detected by Frontex at the external borders of the EU peaked in 2011, with 141,051 total (sea and land combined).[60]

According to Eurostat, EU member states received over 1.2 million first-time asylum applications in 2015, more than double that of the previous year. Four states (Germany, Hungary, Sweden and Austria) received around two-thirds of the EU's asylum applications in 2015, with Hungary, Sweden and Austria being the top recipients of asylum applications per capita.[61] More than 1 million migrants crossed the Mediterranean Sea in 2015, considerably dropping to 364,000 in 2016.[62] Numbers of arriving migrants fell again in 2017.[63]

In 2010 the European Commission commissioned a study on the financial, political and legal implications of a relocation of migrants in Europe.[64] The report concluded that there were several options for dealing with the issues relating to migration within Europe, and that most member states favoured an "ad hoc mechanism based on a pledging exercise among the Member States".[64]

Article 26 of the Schengen Convention[65] says that carriers which transport people into the Schengen area shall if they transport people who are refused entry into the Schengen Area, be responsible to pay for the return of the refused people, and pay penalties.[66] Further clauses on this topic are found in EU directive 2001/51/EC.[67] This has had the effect that migrants without a visa are not allowed on aircraft, boats or trains going into the Schengen Area, so migrants without a visa have resorted to migrant smugglers.[68] Humanitarian visas are in general not given to refugees who want to apply for asylum.[69]

The laws on migrant smuggling ban helping migrants to pass any national border if the migrants are without a visa or other permission to enter. This has caused many airlines to check for visas and refuse passage to migrants without visas, including through international flights inside the Schengen Area. After being refused air passage, many migrants then attempt to travel overland to their destination country. According to a study carried out for the European Parliament, "penalties for carriers, who assume some of the control duties of the European police services, either block asylum-seekers far from Europe's borders or force them to pay more and take greater risks to travel illegally".[70][71]

Europe needs to fulfil its humanitarian duty, helping those fleeing for their lives, and as a Christian-Democrat, I want to reiterate that is not Christian rights, but human rights that Europe invented. But we also need to better secure our external borders and make sure that asylum rules are used properly and not abused.

Manfred Weber, leader of the European People's Party in the European Parliament.

Slavoj iek identifies a "double blackmail" in the debate on the migrant crisis: those who argue Europe's borders should be entirely opened to refugees, and those who argue that the borders should be closed completely.[72][pageneeded]

European Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, Dimitris Avramopoulos, said that the European Commission "does not care about the political cost" of its handling of the migration crisis, because it's there for five years to do its job "with vision, responsibility and commitment" and what drives it "is not to be re-elected", and invited European national leaders to do likewise and stop worrying about reelection.[73][74]

On 31 August 2015, according to The New York Times, Angela Merkel, German Chancellor and leader of the Christian Democratic Union, in some of her strongest language theretofore on the immigrant crisis, warned that freedom of travel and open borders among the 28 member states of the EU could be jeopardised if they did not agree on a shared response to this crisis.[75]

Nicolas Sarkozy, President of the Republicans and former French president, compared EU migrant plan to "mending a burst pipe by spreading water round the house while leaving the leak untouched".[76] Following German Chancellor Angela Merkel's decision to allow tens of thousands of people to enter Germany, Sarkozy criticised her, saying that it would attract even greater numbers of people to Europe, where a significant part would "inevitably" end up in France due to the EU's free movement policies and the French welfare state. He also demanded that the Schengen agreement on borderless travel should be replaced with a new agreement providing border checks for non-EU citizens.[77]

Italian Prime Minister and Secretary of the Italian Democratic Party Matteo Renzi said the EU should forge a single European policy on asylum.[78] French Prime Minister Manuel Valls of the French Socialist Party stated, "There must be close cooperation between the European Commission and member states as well as candidate members."[79] Sergei Stanishev, President of the Party of European Socialists, stated:

At this moment, more people in the world are displaced by conflict than at any time since the Second World War. ... Many die on the approach to Europe in the Mediterranean yet others perish on European soil. ... As social democrats the principle of solidarity is the glue that keeps our family together. ... We need a permanent European mechanism for fairly distributing asylum-seekers in European member states. ... War, poverty and the stark rise in inequality are global, not local problems. As long as we do not address these causes globally, we cannot deny people the right to look for a more hopeful future in a safer environment.[80]

According to The Wall Street Journal, the appeal of Eurosceptic politicians has increased.[81]

Nigel Farage, leader of the British anti-EU United Kingdom Independence Party and co-leader of the eurosceptic Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy group, blamed the EU "and Germany in particular" for giving "huge incentives for people to come to the European Union by whatever means" and said that this would make deaths more likely. He claimed that the EU's Schengen agreement on open borders had failed and that Islamists could exploit the situation and enter Europe in large numbers, saying that "one of the ISIL terrorist suspects who committed the first atrocity against holidaymakers in Tunisia has been seen getting off a boat onto Italian soil".[82][83] In 2013, Farage had called on the UK government to accept more Syrian refugees,[84] before clarifying that those refugees should be Christian due to the existence of nearer places of refuge for Muslims.[85]Marine Le Pen, leader of the French far-right National Front and co-president of the former Europe of Nations and Freedom (EMF) grouping, accused Germany of looking to hire "slaves" by opening its doors to large numbers of asylum seekers among a debate in Germany whether there should be exceptions to the recently introduced minimum wage law for refugees.[86][87] Le Pen also accused Germany of imposing its immigration policy on the rest of the EU unilaterally.[88] Her comments were reported by the German[89] and Austrian press,[90] and were called "abstruse claims" by the online edition of Der Spiegel.[91] Centreright daily Die Welt wrote that she "exploits the refugee crisis for anti-German propaganda".[92]

Geert Wilders, the leader of the Dutch Party for Freedom (a member of the former EMF grouping), who is known for his criticism of Islam, called the influx of people an "Islamic invasion" during a debate in the Dutch parliament, speaking about "masses of young men in their twenties with beards singing Allahu Akbar across Europe".[93] He also dismissed the idea that people arriving in Western Europe via the Balkans are genuine refugees, stating: "Turkey, Greece, Macedonia, Serbia are safe countries. If you flee them then you are doing it for benefits and a house."[94]

After the migrant shipwreck on 19 April 2015, Italy's Premier Matteo Renzi spoke by telephone to French President Franois Hollande and to Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.[95][96] They agreed to call for an emergency meeting of European interior ministers to address the problem of migrant deaths. Renzi condemned human trafficking as a "new slave trade"[97] while Prime Minister Muscat said 19 April shipwreck was the "biggest human tragedy of the last few years". Hollande described people traffickers as "terrorists" who put migrant lives at risk. The German government's representative for migration, refugees and integration, Aydan zouz, said that with more migrants likely to arrive as the weather turned warmer, emergency rescue missions should be restored. "It was an illusion to think that cutting off Mare Nostrum would prevent people from attempting this dangerous voyage across the Mediterranean", she said.[98][99][99][100] Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, called for collective EU action ahead of a meeting in Luxembourg on Monday 20 April.[100][101]

In a press conference, Renzi confirmed that Italy had called an "extraordinary European council" meeting as soon as possible to discuss the tragedy,[102] various European leaders agreed with this idea.[103][104] Cameron tweeted on 20 April that he "supported" Renzi's "call for an emergency meeting of EU leaders to find a comprehensive solution" to the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean.[105] He later confirmed that he would attend an emergency summit of European leaders on Thursday.[106]

On 20 April 2015, the European Commission proposed a 10-point plan to tackle the crisis:[107]

A year after the 10-point plan was introduced[when?], the European Commission also began the process for reforming the Common European Asylum system.

Started in 1999, the European Commission began devising a plan to create a unified asylum system for those seeking refuge and asylum. Named the Common European Asylum System (CEAS), the system sought to address three key problems which consisted of asylum shopping, differing outcomes in different EU Member States for those seeking asylum, and differing social benefits in different EU Member States for those seeking asylum.[108]

In an attempt to address these issues, the European Commission created five components that sought to fulfill minimum standards for asylum:[108]

Completed in 2005, the Common European Asylum System sought to protect the rights those seeking asylum. The system proved to create differing implementation across EU states, building an uneven system of twenty-eight asylum systems across individual states. Due to this divided asylum system and problems with the Dublin system, the European Commission proposed a reform of the Common European Asylum System in 2016.[109]

Starting on 6 April 2016, the European Commission began the process of reforming the Common European Asylum System and creating measures for safe and managed paths for legal migration to Europe. First Vice-President Frans Timmermans stated that, "we need a sustainable system for the future, based on common rules, a fairer sharing of responsibility, and safe legal channels for those who need protection to get it in the EU."[110]

The European Commission identified five areas that needed improvement in order to successfully reform the Common European Asylum System:[110]

To create safer and more efficient legal migration routes, the European Commission sought to meet the following five goals:[110]

On 13 July 2016, the European Commission introduced the proposals to complete the reform of the Common European Asylum System. The reform sought to create a just policy for asylum seekers, while providing a new system that was simple and shortened. Ultimately, the reform proposal attempted to create a system that could handle normal and impacted times of migratory pressure.[111]

The European Commission's outline for reform proposed the following:[111]

The 2013 Lampedusa migrant shipwreck involved "more than 360" deaths, leading the Italian government to establish Operation Mare Nostrum, a large-scale naval operation that involved search and rescue, with some migrants brought aboard a naval amphibious assault ship.[113] In 2014, the Italian government ended the operation, calling the costs too large for one EU state alone to manage; Frontex assumed the main responsibility for search and rescue operations. The Frontex operation is called Operation Triton.[114] The Italian government had requested additional funds from the EU to continue the operation but member states did not offer the requested support.[115] The UK government cited fears that the operation was acting as "an unintended 'pull factor', encouraging more migrants to attempt the dangerous sea crossing and thereby leading to more tragic and unnecessary deaths".[116] The operation consisted of two surveillance aircraft and three ships, with seven teams of staff who gathered intelligence and conducted screening/identification processing. Its monthly budget was estimated at 2.9million.[114] Amid an upsurge in the number of sea arrivals in Italy from Libya in 2014, several European Union governments refused to fund the Italian-run rescue option Operation Mare Nostrum, which was replaced by Frontex's Operation Triton in November 2014. In the first six months of 2015, Greece overtook Italy in the number of arrivals, becoming in the summer of 2015 the starting point of a flow of refugees and migrants moving through Balkan countries to Northern European countries, mainly Germany and Sweden.

The Guardian and Reuters noted that doubling the size of Operation Triton would still leave the mission with fewer resources than the previous Italian-run rescue option (Operation Mare Nostrum) whose budget was more than 3 times as large, had 4 times the number of aircraft[117] and had a wider mandate to conduct search and rescue operations across the Mediterranean Sea.[118]

On 23 April 2015, a five-hour emergency summit was held and EU heads of state agreed to triple the budget of Operation Triton to 120million for 20152016.[119] EU leaders claimed that this would allow for the same operational capabilities as Operation Mare Nostrum had had in 20132014. As part of the agreement the United Kingdom agreed to send HMSBulwark, two naval patrol boats and three helicopters to join the Operation.[119] On 5 May 2015 it was announced by the Irish Minister of Defence Simon Coveney that the L Eithne would also take part in the response to the crisis.[120] Amnesty International immediately criticised the EU response as "a face-saving not a life-saving operation" and said that "failure to extend Triton's operational area will fatally undermine today's commitment".[121]

On 18 May 2015, the European Union decided to launch a new operation based in Rome, called EU Navfor Med, under the command of the Italian Admiral Enrico Credendino,[122] to undertake systematic efforts to identify, capture and dispose of vessels used by migrant smugglers.[123] The first phase of the operation, launched on 22 June, involved naval surveillance to detect smugglers' boats and monitor smuggling patterns from Libya towards Italy and Malta. The second phase, called "Operation Sophia", started in October, and was aimed at disrupting the smugglers' journeys by boarding, searching, seizing and diverting migrant vessels in international waters. The operation uses six EU warships.[124][125] As of April 2016, more than 13,000 migrants were rescued from the sea and 68 alleged smugglers were arrested in the course of the operation.[126]

The EU seeks to increase the scope of EU Navfor Med so that a third phase of the operation would include patrols inside Libyan waters in order to capture and dispose of vessels used by smugglers.[127][128][129] Land operations on Libya to destroy vessels used by smugglers had been proposed, but commentators note that such an operation would need a UN or Libyan permit.

The Greek islands (Kos, Leros, Chios, for example) serve as main entry points into Europe for Syrian refugees.[130]

The entry routes through the Western Balkan have experienced the greatest intensity of border restrictions in the 2015 EU migrant crisis, according to The New York Times[45] and other sources, as follows:

Beginning in 1999, the Tampere Agenda outlines the EU's policy on migration, presenting a certain openness towards freedom, security, and justice.[140] This agenda focuses on two central issues, including the development of a common asylum system and the enhancement of external border controls.[140] The externalization of borders with Turkey is essentially the transferring of border controls and management to foreign countries, which are in close proximity to EU countries.[141] The EU's decision to externalize its borders puts significant pressure on non-EU countries to cooperate with EU political forces.[142]

Communication on Global Approach to Migration and Mobility" (GAMM). The Migration Partnership Framework introduced in 2016 implements greater resettlement of migrants and alternative legal routes for migration.[140] The Migration Partnership Framework's goals aligns with the EUs efforts throughout the refugee crisis to deflect responsibility and legal obligations away from EU member states and onto transit and origin countries.[140][142] By directing migrant flows to third countries,[clarification needed] policies place responsibilities on third countries[clarification needed].[142] States with insufficient resources are forced (by law) to ensure the protection of migrants rights, including the right to asylum.[142] Destination states under border externalization strategies are responsible for rights violated outside their own territory.[142] Fundamental rights of migrants can be impacted during the process of externalizing borders.[142] For example, child migrants are recognized to have special status under international law, yet during transit, they are vulnerable to trafficking and other crimes.

Between 11 and 12 November 2015, Valletta Summit on Migration between European and African leaders was held in Valletta, Malta, to discuss the migrant crisis. The summit resulted in the EU setting up an Emergency Trust Fund to promote development in Africa, in return for African countries to help out in the crisis.[143]

According to the Washington Post, German Chancellor Angela Merkel's public pledges (at a time of diplomatic standoff with the government of Hungary at the beginning of September, when tens of thousands of refugees were attempting to cross Hungarian territory without getting processed for asylum application in the country) that Germany would offer temporary residency to refugees, combined with television footage of cheering Germans welcoming refugees and migrants arriving in Munich,[144] persuaded large numbers of people to move from Turkey up the Western Balkan route.[42]

On 25 August 2015 according to The Guardian 'Germany's federal agency for migration and refugees' made it public, that "The #Dublin procedure for Syrian citizens is at this point in time effectively no longer being adhered to". During a press conference, "Germany's interior minister, Thomas de Maizire, confirmed that the suspension of the Dublin agreement was "not as such a legally binding act", but more of a "guideline for management practice".[145] Around 24 August 2015, while thousands of migrants tried to reach Western Europe through the Balkans, a considerable proportion of them fleeing the Syrian Civil War, and noticing that most of the burden of migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea fell on the peripheral southern EU member states Greece and Italy, the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, according to news media, decided to no longer follow the rule under the 'Dublin' EU regulations for asylum seekers holding that migrants "can apply for asylum only in the first EU member state they enter"[146] (The 'Dublin' regulation actually holds that the migrant should apply for asylum in the first EU country where he was formally registered.)[citation needed] Germany ordered its officers to also process asylum applications from Syrians if they had come through other EU countries.[146] In the night of 4 September 2015, Merkel decided that Germany would admit the thousands of refugees who were stranded in Hungary,[147] in sweltering conditions,[148] and whom the Hungarian prime minister Orban had sent to the Austrian border.[149] With that decision, she reportedly aimed to prevent disturbances at the German borders.[149] The days following that 4 September, tens of thousands of refugees traveled from Hungary via Vienna into Germany.[147][148]

Analyst Will Hutton for the British newspaper The Guardian on 30 August 2015 praised Merkel's decisions on migration policies: "Angela Merkel's humane stance on migration is a lesson to us all The German leader has stood up to be counted. Europe should rally to her side She wants to keep Germany and Europe open, to welcome legitimate asylum seekers in common humanity, while doing her very best to stop abuse and keep the movement to manageable proportions. Which demands a European-wide response ()".[150]

The EU proposed to the Turkish government a plan in which Turkey would take back every refugee who entered Greece (and thereby the EU) illegally. In return, the EU would accept one person into the EU who is registered as a Syrian refugee in Turkey for every Syrian sent back from Greece.[152] 12 EU countries have national lists of so-called safe countries of origin. The European Commission is proposing one, common EU list designating as 'safe' all EU candidate countries (Albania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey), plus potential EU candidates Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo.[153] The list would allow for faster returns to those countries, even though asylum applications from nationals of those countries would continue to be assessed on an individual, case-by-case basis.[153] International Law generated during the Geneva Convention states that a country is considered "safe" when there is a democratic system in a country and generally there is: no persecution, no torture, no threat of violence, and no armed conflict.[154]

In November, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoan reportedly threatened to send the millions of refugees in Turkey to EU member states if it was left to shoulder the burden alone.[155] On 12 November 2015, at the end of the two-day summit in Malta, EU officials announced an agreement to offer Turkey 3 billion over two years to manage more than 2 million refugees from Syria who had sought refuge there, in return for curbing migration through Turkey into the EU.[156] The 3 billion fund for Turkey was approved by the EU in February 2016.[157]

In January 2016, the Netherlands proposed that the EU take in 250,000 refugees a year from Turkey in return for Turkey closing the Aegean sea route to Greece, but Turkey rejected the plan.[158] Starting on 7 March 2016, the EU met with Turkey for another summit in Brussels to negotiate further solutions of the crisis. An original plan saw for the closing statement to declare the Western Balkan route closed. However, this was met with criticism from German chancellor Angela Merkel.[159] Turkey countered the offer by demanding a further 3 billion in order to help them in supplying the 2.7 million refugees in Turkey. In addition, the Turkish government asked for their citizens to be allowed to travel freely into the Schengen area starting at the end of June 2016, as well as an increased speed in talks of a possible accession of Turkey to the European Union.[160][161] The plan to send migrants back to Turkey was criticized on 8 March 2016 by the United Nations, which warned that it could be illegal to send the migrants back to Turkey in exchange of financial and political rewards.[162]

On 20 March 2016, an agreement between the European Union and Turkey, aiming to discourage migrants from making the dangerous sea journey from Turkey to Greece, came into effect. Under its terms, migrants arriving in Greece would be sent back to Turkey if they did not apply for asylum or their claim was rejected, whilst the EU would send around 2,300 experts, including security and migration officials and translators, to Greece in order to help implement the deal.[163]

It was also agreed that any irregular migrants who crossed into Greece from Turkey after 20 March 2016 would be sent back to Turkey, based on an individual case-by-case evaluation. Any Syrian returned to Turkey would be replaced by a Syrian resettled from Turkey to the EU, preferably the individuals who did not try to enter the EU illegally in the past and not exceeding a maximum of 72,000 people.[152] Turkish nationals would have access to the Schengen passport-free zone by June 2016 but this would not include non-Schengen countries such as the UK. The talks aiming at Turkey's accession to the EU as a member began in July 2016, and $3.3 billion in aid was to be delivered to Turkey.[163][164] The talks were suspended in November 2016, following the 2016 Turkish coup d'tat attempt.[165] A similar threat was raised as the European Parliament voted to suspend EU membership talks with Turkey in November 2016: "if you go any further," Erdoan declared, "these border gates will be opened. Neither me nor my people will be affected by these dry threats."[166][167]

Migrants from Greece to Turkey were to be given medical checks, registered and fingerprinted, then bused to "reception and removal" centres.[168][169] and later deported to their home countries.[168] The UNHCR's director Vincent Cochetel claimed in August 2016 that parts of the deal were already de facto suspended because of the post-coup absence of Turkish police at the Greek detention centres to oversee deportations.[170][171]

The UNHCR said it was not a party to the EU-Turkey deal and it would not be involved in returns or detention.[172] Like the UNHCR, four aid agencies (Mdecins Sans Frontires, the International Rescue Committee, the Norwegian Refugee Council and Save the Children) said they would not help implementing the EU-Turkey deal because blanket expulsion of refugees contravened international law.[173]

Amnesty International said that the agreement between EU and Turkey was "madness", and that 18 March 2016 was "a dark day for Refugee Convention, Europe and humanity". Turkish prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that Turkey and EU had the same challenges, the same future and the same destiny. Donald Tusk said that the migrants in Greece would not be sent back to dangerous areas.[174]

On 17 March 2017, Turkish interior minister Sleyman Soylu threatened to send 15,000 refugees to the European Union every month, while Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu also threatened to cancel the deal.[175][176]

On 9 October 2019, the Turkish offensive into north-eastern Syria began. Within the first week and a half 130,000 people were displaced. On 10 October it was reported that President Erdoan had threatened to send "millions" of Syrian refugees to Europe in response to criticism of his military offensive into Kurdish-controlled northern Syria.[177] On 27 February 2020, a senior Turkish official said Turkish police, coast guard and border security officials had received orders to no longer stop refugees land and sea crossings to Europe.[178]

European Union members legally obliged to join Schengen at a future date

Countries with open borders

In the Schengen Agreement of 14 June 1985, 26 European countries (22 of the 28 European Union member states, plus four European Free Trade Association states) joined together to form an area where border checks on internal Schengen borders (i.e. between member states) are abolished and instead checks are restricted to the external Schengen borders and countries with external borders are obligated to enforce border control regulations. Countries may reinstate internal border controls for a maximum of two months for "public policy or national security" reasons.[179]

The Dublin regulation determines the EU member state responsible to examine an asylum application to prevent asylum applicants in the EU from "asylum shopping", where applicants send their applications for asylum to numerous EU member states to get the best "deal" instead of just having "safety countries",[180] or "asylum orbiting", where no member state takes responsibility for an asylum seeker. By default (when no family reasons or humanitarian grounds are present), the first member state that an asylum seeker entered and in which they have been fingerprinted is responsible. If the asylum seeker then moves to another member state, they can be transferred back to the member state they first entered. This has led many to criticise the Dublin rules for placing too much responsibility for asylum seekers on member states on the EU's external borders (like Italy, Greece, Croatia and Hungary), instead of devising a burden-sharing system among EU states.[181][182][183]

In June 2016, the Commission to the European Parliament and Council addressed "inherent weaknesses" in the Common European Asylum System and proposed reforms for the Dublin Regulation.[184] Under the initial Dublin Regulation, responsibility was concentrated on border states that received a large influx of asylum seekers. A briefing by the European Parliament explained that the Dublin Agreement was only designed to assign responsibility, not effectively share responsibility.[185] The reforms would attempt to create a burden-sharing system through several mechanisms. The proposal would introduce a "centralized automated system" to record the number of asylum applications across the EU, with "national interfaces" within each of the Member States.[186] It would also present a "reference key" based on a Member State's GDP and population size to determine its absorption capacity.[186] When absorption capacity in a Member State exceeds 150 percent of its reference share, a "fairness mechanism" would distribute the excess number of asylum seekers across less congested Member States.[186] If a Member State chooses not to accept the asylum seekers, it would contribute 250,000 per application as a "solidarity contribution".[186] The reforms have been discussed in European Parliament since its proposal in 2016, and was included in a meeting on "The Third Reform of the Common European Asylum System Up for the Challenge" in 2017.[187]

Under the Dublin Regulation, an asylum seeker has to apply for asylum in the first EU country they entered, and, if they cross borders to another country after being fingerprinted, they can be returned to the former. As most asylum seekers try to reach Germany or Sweden through the other EU countries in order to apply for asylum there, and as 22 EU countries form the borderless Schengen area where internal border controls are abolished, enforcement of the Dublin Regulation became increasingly difficult during late summer 2015, with some countries allowing asylum seekers to transit through their territories and other countries renouncing the right to return them back or reinstating border controls within the Schengen Area to prevent them from entering. In July 2017, the European Court of Justice upheld the Dublin Regulation, despite the high influx of 2015, giving EU member states the right to deport migrants to the first country of entry to the EU.[188]

Countries responded in different ways:

The table "Expenditure on refugees (caseload) 20152016 (2016 summary)" summarizes the 1.7 million asylum applicants in 2015 will cost 18 billion in maintenance costs in 2016. The total 2015 and 2016 asylum caseload will cost 27.3 billion (27.296 in Mil.) in 2016. In the "Expenditure on refugees (caseload) 20152016 (2016 summary)," Sweden will bear the heaviest cost.[207]

The escalation in April 2015 of shipwrecks of migrant boats in the Mediterranean led European Union leaders to reconsider their policies on border control and processing of migrants.[100] On 20 April the European Commission proposed a 10-point plan that included the European Asylum Support Office deploying teams in Italy and Greece for joint processing of asylum applications.[208] Also in April 2015 German chancellor Angela Merkel proposed a new system of quotas to distribute non-EU asylum seekers around the EU member states.[209]

In September 2015, as thousands of migrants started to move from Budapest to Vienna, Germany, Italy and France demanded asylum-seekers be shared more evenly between EU states. Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker proposed to distribute 160,000 asylum seekers among EU states under a new migrant quota system to be set out. Jean Asselborn, the Luxembourg foreign minister, called for the establishment of a European Refugee Agency, which would have the power to investigate whether every EU member state is applying the same standards for granting asylum to migrants. Viktor Orbn, the prime minister of Hungary, criticised the European Commission warning that "tens of millions" of migrants could come to Europe. Asselborn declared to be "ashamed" of Orbn.[210][211] German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said that EU members reluctant to accept compulsory migrant quotas may have to be outvoted: "if there is no other way, then we should seriously consider to use the instrument of a qualified majority".[212]

Yes

Abstention

No

Non-EU state

Leaders of the Visegrd Group (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia) declared in a September meeting in Prague that they will not accept any compulsory long-term quota on redistribution of immigrants.[213] Czech Government's Secretary for European Affairs Tom Prouza commented that "if two or three thousand people who do not want to be here are forced into the Czech Republic, it is fair to assume that they will leave anyway. The quotas are unfair to the refugees, we can't just move them here and there like a cattle." According to the Czech interior minister Milan Chovanec, from 2 September 2015, Czech Republic was offering asylum to every Syrian caught by the police notwithstanding the Dublin Regulation: out of about 1,300 apprehended until 9 September, only 60 decided to apply for asylum in the Czech Republic, with the rest of them continuing to Germany or elsewhere.[214]

Czech President Milo Zeman said that Ukrainian refugees fleeing War in Donbass should be also included in migrant quotas.[215] In November 2015, the Czech Republic started a program of medical evacuations of selected Syrian refugees from Jordan (400 in total). Under the program, severely sick children were selected for treatment in the best Czech medical facilities, with their families getting asylum, airlift and a paid flats in the Czech Republic after stating clear intent to stay in the country. However, from the initial 3 families that had been transported to Prague, one immediately fled to Germany. Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka stated that this signals that quota system will not work either.[216]

On 7 September 2015, France announced that it would accept 24,000 asylum-seekers over two years; Britain announced that it would take in up to 20,000 refugees, primarily vulnerable children and orphans from camps in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey; and Germany pledged US$6.7 billion to deal with the migrant crisis.[217][218] However, also on 7 September 2015, both Austria and Germany warned that they would not be able to keep up with the current pace of the influx and that it would need to slow down first.[219]

On 22 September 2015, European Union interior ministers meeting in the Justice and Home Affairs Council approved a plan to relocate 120,000 asylum seekers over two years from the frontline states Italy, Greece and Hungary to all other EU countries (except Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom which have opt-outs). The relocation plan applies to asylum seekers "in clear need of international protection" (those with a recognition rate higher than 75 percent, i.e. Syrians, Eritreans and Iraqis) 15,600 from Italy, 50,400 from Greece and 54,000 from Hungary who will be distributed among EU states on the basis of quotas taking into account the size of economy and population of each state, as well as the average number of asylum applications. The decision was taken by majority vote, with the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia voting against and Finland abstaining. Since Hungary voted against the relocation plan, its 54,000 asylum seekers would not be relocated for now, and could be relocated from Italy and Greece instead.[220][221][222][223] Czech Interior Minister tweeted after the vote: "Common sense lost today."[224] Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico is threatening legal action over EU's mandatory migrant quotas at European Court of Justice in Luxembourg.[225] On 9 October, the first 20 Eritrean asylum seekers were relocated by plane from Italy to Sweden,[226] following the EU prerequisite fingerprinting in Italy as the first member country of asylum registration.[227]

On 25 October 2015, the leaders of Greece and other states along Western Balkan routes to wealthier nations of Europe, including Germany, agreed to set up holding camps for 100,000 asylum seekers, a move which German Chancellor Merkel supported.[228]

On 12 November it was reported that Frontex had been maintaining combined asylum seeker and deportation hotspots in Lesbos, Greece since October.[229]

On 15 December 2015, the EU proposed taking over the border and coastal security operations at major migrant entry pressure points, via its Frontex operation.[230]

By September 2016 the quota system proposed by EU has been abandoned for the time being, after staunch resistance by Visegrd Group countries.[231][232]

By 9 June 2017, 22,504 people have been resettled through the quota system, with over 2000 of them being resettled in May alone.[233] All relevant countries participate in the relocation scheme with exception of Austria, Denmark, Czech Republic, Poland, and Hungary,[234] against whom the European commission has consequentially launched sanctions procedure only to the Czech Republic, Poland, and Hungary.[235]

Historically, migrants have often been portrayed as a "security threat," and there has been much focus on the narrative that terrorists maintain networks amongst transnational, refugee, and migrant populations. This fear has been exaggerated into a modern-day Islamist terrorism Trojan Horse in which terrorists hide among refugees and penetrate host countries.[236] In the wake of November 2015 Paris attacks, Poland's European affairs minister-designate Konrad Szymaski stated that he sees no possibility of enacting the EU refugee relocation scheme,[237] saying, "We'll accept [refugees only] if we have security guarantees."[238]

The attacks prompted European officialsparticularly German officialsto re-evaluate their stance on EU policy toward migrants, especially in light of the ongoing European migrant crisis.[239][240] Many German officials believed a higher level of scrutiny was needed, and criticised the position of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, but the German Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel defended her stance, and pointed out that a lot of migrants were fleeing terrorism.[240]

In January 2016, 18 of 31 men suspected of violent assaults on women in Cologne on New Year's Eve were identified as asylum seekers, prompting calls by German officials to deport convicted criminals who may be seeking asylum;[241] these sexual attacks brought about a fresh wave of anti-immigrant protests across Europe.[242] Merkel used Wir schaffen das during the violence and crime by the immigrants in Germany, including the 2016 Munich shooting, the 2016 Ansbach bombing, and the Wrzburg train attack.[243]

In 2016, according to the Italian daily newspaper La Stampa, officials from Europol conducted an investigation into the trafficking of fake documents for ISIL. They identified fake Syrian passports in the refugee camps in Greece that were destined to supposed members of ISIL, in order to avoid Greek government controls and make their way to other parts of Europe. Also, the chief of Europol said that a new task force of 200 counter-terrorism officers would be deployed to the Greek islands alongside Greek border guards in order to help Greece stop a "strategic" level campaign by ISIL to infiltrate terrorists into Europe.[244]

In October 2016 Danish immigration minister Inger Stjberg authorities reported 50 cases of suspected radicalised asylum seekers at asylum centres. The reports encompassed everything from adult Islamic State sympathisers celebrating terror attacks to violent children who dress up as IS fighters decapitating teddy bears. Stjberg expressed her consternation at asylum seekers ostensibly fleeing war yet simultaneously supporting violence. Asylum centres having detected radicalisation routinely report their findings to police. The 50 incidents were reported between 17 November 2015 and 14 September 2016.[245][246]

In February 2017, British newspaper The Guardian reported that ISIL was paying the smugglers fees of up to $2,000 USD to recruit people from refugee camps in Jordan and Lebanon child migrants in a desperate attempt to radicalize children for the group. The reports by counter-extremism thinktank Quilliam indicate that an estimated 88,300 unaccompanied childrenwho are reported as missingwere at risk of radicalization by ISIL.[247]

In December 2015, Hungary challenged EU plans to share asylum seekers across EU states at the European Court of Justice.[248] The border has been closed since 15 September 2015, with razor wire fence along its southern borders, particularly Croatia, and by blocking train travel.[249] The government believes that "illegal migrants" are job-seekers, threats to security and likely to "threaten our culture".[250] There have been cases of immigrants and ethnic minorities being attacked. In addition, Hungary has conducted wholesale deportations of refugees, who are generally considered to be allied with ISIL.[251] Refugees are outlawed and almost all are ejected.[251]

There can be instances of exploitation at the hands of enforcement officials, citizens of the host country, instances of human rights violations, child labor, mental and physical trauma/torture, violence-related trauma, and sexual exploitation, especially of children, have been documented.[252]

On October, 2015 German refugee attack plot was foiled by German police which was a plot by neo-Nazis to attack a refugee center with explosives, knives, a baseball bat and a gun. Nazi magazines and memorabilia from the Third Reich, flags emblazoned with banned swastikas were found. According to prosecutor goal was "to establish fear and terror among asylum-seekers". The accused claimed to be either the members of Die Rechte, or anti-Islam group Pegida (Ngida).[253]

In November 2016, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor issued a report regarding the humanitarian situation of migrants into Greece. It hosts 16.209 migrants on its island and 33.650 migrants on the mainland, most of whom are women and children. Because of lack of water, medical care and security protection witnessed by the Euro- Med monitor team- especially with the arrival of winter, they are at risk of serious deterioration in health, mostly children and pregnant women. 1,500 refugees were, accordingly, moved into other places since their camps were deluged with snow, but relocation of the refugees always came too late after they lived without electricity and heating devices for too long. It also showed that there is a lack of access to legal services and security protection to the refugees and migrants in the camps; there is no trust between the resident and the protection offices, paving a path for some people to report crimes and illegal acts in the camps. In addition, the migrants are subject to regular xenophobic attacks, fascist violence, forced strip searches at the hands of residents and police and detention. The women living in the Athens settlements and the Vasilika, Softex and Diavata camps feel worried about their children as they may be subjected to sexual abuse, trafficking and drug use. As a result, some of the refugees and migrants commit suicide, burn property and protest. Finally, it clarified the difficulties the refugees face when entering into Greece; more than 16,000 people are trapped while waiting for deportation on the Greek islands of Lesvos, Chios, Samos, Leros and Kos, and the number of residents is double the capacity of the five islands.[254]

In August 2017 dozens of Afghani asylum seekers made a demonstration in a square in Stockholm against their pending deportations. They were attacked by a group of 1516 men who threw fireworks at them. Three protesters were injured and one was taken to hospital. None were arrested.[255]

According to the UNHCR, the number of forcibly displaced people worldwide reached 59,500,000 at the end of 2014, the highest level since World War II,[258] with a 40 percent increase taking place since 2011. Of these 59.5million, 19.5million were refugees (14.4million under UNHCR's mandate, plus 5.1million Palestinian refugees under UNRWA's mandate), and 1.8million were asylum-seekers. The rest were persons displaced within their own countries (internally displaced persons). The 14.4million refugees under UNHCR's mandate were around 2.7million more than at the end of 2013 (a 23 percent increase), the highest level since 1995. Among them, Syrian refugees became the largest refugee group in 2014 (3.9million, 1.55million more than the previous year), overtaking Afghan refugees (2.6million), who had been the largest refugee group for three decades. Six of the ten largest countries of origin of refugees were African: Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic and Eritrea.[25][259]

The rest is here:

European migrant crisis - Wikipedia

KASTANIES, Greece Migrants in Turkey threw a hail of rocks and tear gas at Greek security forces just over the border, their yells punctuated by the sound of grenades the Greeks detonated in response. The Greeks held a thin green line behind their riot shields, firing rifles into the air intermittently to keep the migrants from rushing the border fence further along the flat woods and farmland marking the edge of Europe.

A few days earlier, on March 4, Turkeys autocratic leader, Recep Tayyip Erdoan, had opened his countrys border to Greece so the millions of migrants desperate to enter Europe could stream into the land between the countries. It was a move he had long threatened and finally made good on after the death of 33 Turkish soldiers in an airstrike in Syria.

Erdoan claimed his action was intended to save the hundreds of thousands of refugees from Russian and Syrian bombing in the Turkish-backed rebel and jihadi-dominated enclave of Idlib. In reality, the displaced people of Idlib remain trapped in Syria by the worlds second-longest wall, with Turkish gendarmes ordered to use lethal force to keep the border closed.

The migrants at the border, who had been bussed to the border city of Edirne by free coaches organized by the Turkish government, were instead from long-standing migrant and refugee communities in Istanbul. Mostly Afghans, many from the countrys Hazara Shia minority, they had been falsely advised by Turkish officials and state media that the road to Europe was finally open.

Only a few weeks later, on March 27, Turkish police burned down the migrant tents. They gave the risk of coronavirus spreading as the reason.

Erdoan had long used opening Turkeys border to Greece as a trump card in negotiating with his European neighbors. The arrival of more than 1 million largely Syrian refugees and other migrants to Europe, primarily to Germany, during the 2015 migrant crisis had dramatically unsettled European politics. People across the continent swung their support to anti-migrant rightwing populist parties, transforming European politics in a historic shift that is still far from over.

They are invaders. They're not migrants any more.

With Europe diplomatically weak and internally divided, Erdoan had effectively used the migrants as a tool to blunt criticism of his 2019 invasion of northeastern Syria, and to extract money at will from fearful EU leaders. As Greek defense minister Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos toured the border village of Kastanies, reassuring anxious locals that the army would hold the line, it seemed likely that European leaders would fold once again.

My grandson is a soldier, Minister, an anxious elderly Greek woman told Panagiotopoulos, grasping his hand. Greece starts from here. This message should be passed to Europeans. Europe is not here at the moment. Only Greece is. VICE News asked Panagiotopoulos whether he expected personnel from the EU border agency Frontex to deploy in support of the Greek state. Frontex is here. Thats all I have to say now, he responded. But I guess well take it up with the [EU] ministers conference when we meet in Zagreb in a couple of days.

While EU leaders coordinated their response, Greeces new conservative government deployed reinforcements of troops and police from across the country. Locals cheered as military convoys rolled through the towns and cities of this formerly quiet border region.

The Greek government as well as the majority of Greeks did not believe they were witnessing a migrant crisis. Instead, they saw the conflict at the border as an act of hybrid warfare in which Turkey was weaponizing migrants and refugees in order to destabilize Greece. Erdoan has repeatedly said that both this region of Western Thrace as well as the eastern islands most affected by the migrant crisis should be reconquered by Turkey, the imperial ruler of these borderlands until just over a century ago.

Videos posted by migrants on social media and others distributed to journalists by the Greek government showed Turkish security forces in uniform and plain clothes firing tear gas at Greek forces as migrants attempted to storm the border fence. Others showed a Turkish armored vehicle attempting to pull down the border fence by tugging on an attached cable.

As northeastern Greece began to feel like a region at war, the Greek armed forces declared the border region a closed military zone. The army began conducting live fire exercises along the border.

Military checkpoints sprang up along the wetlands of the Evros delta, and they restricted access to journalists. At one checkpoint, VICE News saw a dozen or so dejected South Asian men sitting huddled at the feet of Greek soldiers, waiting to be returned to Turkey in a previously illegal pushback now that asylum claims had been suspended by the Greek government.

In the border villages along the Evros river, hundreds of local farmers, hunters, and military reservists assembled into border patrol groups. Soldiers at newly-established military checkpoints flagged them down with torches in the darkness, checking their names before permitting them to proceed with their patrol.

In the village of Feres, a mile from the Turkish border, VICE News spoke to a group of young volunteers just before they headed on patrol. We fear that they're going to send more, the thousands that won't be controllable any more, Georgios Goranis told VICE News. The more they gather on the border, the worse it gets, added his friend Christos Chtazis, because the villagers are outnumbered by the immigrants. They are approximately 30,000 and we are only 8,000 people

They are not just illegal aliens, they are invaders, concluded Theodoros Siourdakis, Yes, now they are invaders. They're not migrants any more.

A Greek soldier guards captured migrants near Poros in the Evros region. Photo: Daphne Tolis/VICE News.

Further along the border, migrants and refugees who crossed illegally were scrambling up forested hillsides in the foothills of the Rhodopi mountains along the Bulgarian frontier, taking the long route around the checkpoints in hope of travelling freely on to Northern Europe.

In the freezing rain, shrouded by mountain fog, Moroccan migrant Nail Boukhreis showed VICE News his soaked and blistered feet, explaining he was travelling from Turkey to Thessaloniki, Greece, and from Thessaloniki to Europe, God willing. Im looking for work. Work here is good. There are no jobs in Morocco, he said, before trudging off into the mist.

But the chances of Boukhreis reaching Western Europe are slim. With asylum claims suspended, the Greek government had announced that day, with the EUs blessing, that economic migrants would be deported straight home to their country of origin once detained.

In the mountain village of Mikro Dereio, VICE News spoke with four Moroccan migrants sitting huddled together on the stone floor of the village coffee shop, watched over by three Greek security forces in ski masks, holding staves and pistols. They told us they were from Syria, one white-bearded elderly man in the coffee shop told VICE News derisively, as he watched proceedings with his fellow villagers. But I knew they were lying. Statistics released to journalists by the Greek government that day asserted that of the 252 migrants and refugees who had then been detained by Greek security forces, 64% were from Afghanistan and 19% were from Pakistan, with only 4% being the Syrians claimed by the Turkish government less than the number of Turkish nationals detained, at 5% of the total.

With the border holding, and the origins of the vast majority of the migrants undermining the humanitarian claims of Turkeys government-controlled media, the European Union mainstream slowly swung around to support the Greek side.

If you see a Greek person here, you feel he wants to slaughter you.

The EUs top officials were helicoptered on a tour of the border by the Greek government, before holding a press conference in a church hall at Kastanies. In an unexpectedly unequivocal show of support for the Greek government, the EU leaders pledged their full support for Greeces zero tolerance policy at the border, with the president of the EU Council, Ursula von der Leyen effectively the continental blocs president declaring that Greece was Europes aspida, or shield. Whirring blades of low-flying aircraft punctuated their speeches dramatically.

Furthermore, Von der Leyen said, the EU would provide 700 million euros in funding for border infrastructure, half of it immediately, along with the promise of 100 EU Frontex reinforcements, a helicopter, and patrol boats.

For Greeces conservative government, it was a powerful vindication of their border policy; for Europe, it was the first chance since Brexit for the EU to demonstrate its common purpose and solidarity in the face of a major crisis. VICE News asked Greeces prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, if he was happy with the support from Europe. It is the best we could have hoped for, he replied.

Europes new hard line on mass migration from Turkey is boosted by the failure of the EUs 2016 deal with Turkey.

That agreement, overseen by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, gave Ankara 6 billion euros in exchange for preventing migrant boats from leaving Turkish beaches for Greek shores. It outlined that refugees already in Greece would be resettled in the rest of the EU, while economic migrants ineligible for asylum would be returned to Turkey. The EU would take one Syrian refugee from Turkish camps in exchange for every economic migrant returned.

The deal was a failure from the start. European nations openly hostile to external migration like Hungary and Poland refused to accept any refugees, while others theoretically open to the idea, like France, exploited loopholes to take as few as possible. A tiny fraction of the arrivals in Greece have been resettled in other European countries.

Almost no failed claimants were returned to Turkey. And the numbers of migrants sailing from Turkey to Greece began to steadily climb again, doubling in the last year alone.

As a result, eastern Greek islands like Lesvos, Chios, and Samos have been turned into the European Unions open-air detention camps, with more than 40,000 migrants and refugees living in squalid conditions in makeshift shanty towns on the edges of island villages. Local Greeks complain of a dramatic rise in crime as destitute migrants break into their homes to steal household goods, furniture, and even floorboards to burn for warmth and construct dwellings.

Refugees and migrants land on the Greek island of Lesvos on March 2, 2020. (Photo by ARIS MESSINIS/AFP via Getty Images)

Popular concern over demographic change as a result of mass migration is toppling liberal governments across the continent. But nowhere has experienced the phenomenon as rapidly or as dramatically as Greeces eastern islands.

On the island of Samos, the capital Vathy has a population of 7,000 and is now neighbored by a sprawling refugee camp of 7,000 migrants and refugees. They live in desperate conditions on the wooded slopes overlooking the town.

In the vast shanty town, the sounds of sawing and hammering punctuate birdsong as migrants and refugees chop down olive and pine trees to construct huts, shops, and bakeries. Refugees and migrants from Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan, as well as economic migrants from Senegal, Gambia, Nigeria, and Ghana live in unhygienic conditions huddled against each other in a camp designed for just 680 people. The migrants say interethnic violence and petty crime is rampant. Problems between Afghans and Arabs always break out at the food queue, Omar Abu Zeraa, a young refugee from the Syrian city of Aleppo, told VICE News. I tell you, if this happened in any country, there would be problems. Seven thousand Greeks live here, along with 7,000 migrants. Think about it. They were only 7,000 people living in peace.

Things have got so bad now, if you see a Greek person here, you feel he wants to slaughter you.

Samos' migrant shanty town overlooks the island's capital of Vathy. (Photo by Giles Clarke/Getty Images)

While VICE News was on Samos, migrants and refugees demanding passage to the mainland held a series of demonstrations. In one, African migrants hurled rocks at Greek riot police, who quelled the protest with tear gas. Although they had been prevented from entering the town center to demonstrate, in the town below, shops closed early and Greek mothers hurried away from work to pick up their children from nursery.

At another impromptu demonstration by Arab migrants and refugees in the towns picturesque main square, angry local Greeks, including the mayor of eastern Samos, Giorgos Stantzos, shooed the demonstrators away. Then locals attacked the VICE News crew, smashing one of our two cameras and throwing the other in the sea.

The new threat of coronavirus outbreaks in the squalid refugee camps has exacerbated the already fraught situation. On Thursday, Greece announced it would quarantine a refugee camp on the mainland after 20 people tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

Mayor Stantzos is terrified of the explosive situation. The problem is huge, and I fear every minute. Maybe nothing will happen, maybe anything can happen, a simple accident inside the camp might result in uncontrolled situations, and, sorry to say, human victims.

The European borders must be better protected, more effectively, with a strong Frontex presence, he told VICE News. Europe must demand Frontex be placed on the Turkish coast. The boats must not sail. And the management should take place in Turkish camps, not European ones.

We can't stand European countries to simply exhibit their solidarity by only paying, he added. They finance and give money in order for what to happen? To turn a whole country into an open prison?

Last month, the Greek government attempted to establish new closed camps on the islands, but gave up after villagers on Lesvos besieged the riot police in their military base, forcing them to withdraw and the plan to be abandoned.

After Erdogan brought the slow-burning crisis at Greeces borders to the brink of undeclared war, the already-frayed hospitality of Greek islanders evaporated completely.

On the island of Lesvos, bands of local vigilantes established checkpoints to prevent migrants from walking into the town. They also harassed, beat, and intimidated the mostly German NGO workers, journalists, and activists in the area, whom Greeks blame for exacerbating the situation.

This problem grows and spreads like cancer across all of Greece.

The Greek government announced that no new asylum claims filed after March 1 would be examined, and that any migrants arriving on the islands would be transferred to the mainland for immediate return to their countries of origin.

Before this new policy, refugees whose asylum claims had been accepted were already being transferred to the mainland in small numbers. In the snow-shrouded mountain village of Samarina, in Greeces northern Pindus mountain range, hundreds of migrants were being hosted in abandoned ski resorts, causing unease among the locals, who belong to Greeces dwindling Vlach ethnic minority.

You cant bring 300 people to a region with 25 or 30 [local] people, Samarina shopkeeper Michalis Papoulias told VICE News. Germany, Belgium, Holland, the advanced countries, they took the people they wanted to take.

And now what? We are left with people that have nothing, people who are hunted, who are tired. What can we do with them? We cant absorb them, we dont have jobs, we are dealing with an economic crisis apart from the immigration that affects all of Europe. But we dont have the infrastructure to absorb all of these people. So, one thing leads to the other. And this problem grows and spreads like cancer across all of Greece.

With the first deployment of European reinforcements, including Dutch military police, Austrian police special forces, and Polish and Hungarian border guards, the crisis on the border has begun to abate. But the effects of Erdogans gambit in Europe will last far longer. The zero tolerance approach to illegal border crossings by migrants and refugees alike, for which Hungarian leader Viktor Orban was condemned by the European mainstream in 2015, has now become the policy of the European Union as a whole.

European voters already uncomfortable with mass immigration and skeptical that the flows of migrants pressing into the continent were legally entitled to refugee status feel buoyed by the European mainstreams new response.

Mainstream European conservatives, like the EPP group which represents the European Parliaments largest bloc, have rushed to associate themselves with the new hard-line border policies. They see a chance to outflank the populist right, which threatens their hold on power, and to convince European voters they can be trusted to stem the migration from outside the continent.

It is likely that, in pressuring EU leaders for his own short-term ends, Erdogan has done great, and perhaps permanent, damage to the entire system of asylum for genuine refugees.

Erdogan gambled that he could deploy migrants as moral blackmail against European leaders. Instead, as European leaders deploy border guards to Greece and build stronger, higher border walls against Turkey, it appears likely that all he has achieved is the construction of a hard-line Fortress Europe as the continental blocs new official policy.

Cover: Migrants and refugees scuffle with riot police on the Greek island of Lesvos, on March 3, 2020. (Photo by ANGELOS TZORTZINIS / AFP) (Photo by ANGELOS TZORTZINIS/AFP via Getty Images)

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What the Hell Is Happening With Migrants in Greece? - VICE

Local people on the Eastern Aegean island of Lesvos continue to be shocked by the behaviour of illegal immigrants, particularly those from the infamous Moria migrant camp to the north of Mytilene.

The main entrance to the Saint Raphael church close to the Moria migrant camp was attacked.

As seen in the photos, the wooden door was broken.

There was also other material damage done to the church.

This latest incident on Lesvos comes off the back of many other shocking events in the past few days, including two gangs of Afghani immigrants battling each other, African immigrants ridiculing and coughing on police in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic,and thousands of olives trees being destroyed, as reported by Greek City Times.

This is not the only time a church has been attacked by illegal immigrants on Lesvos. The last known incident occurred only last month when another church was completely trashed.

About half of the 50,000 illegal immigrants on Lesvos are kept at the Moria camp that is supposed to host only 3,000 people. A rise in criminality has hit the island since the migrant crisis began in 2015 when Turkey allowed hundreds of thousands of people to leave and enter Greece illegally, whether via land or sea.

Lesvos, as an island of only 90,000 citizens, has been one of the most hardest hit areas of Greece. Also sharing the brunt of the migration crisis is the island of Chios.

In November last year, illegal immigrants on Chios attacked the Church of Agios Haralambos in Chalkios village for a third time. Villagers were left in horror as they saw the Altar burned.

As a deeply religious society, these attacks on churches are shocking to the Greek people and calls to question whether these illegal immigrants seeking a new life in Europe are willing to integrate and conform to the norms and values of their new countries.

These continued attacks has ultimately seen the people of Lesvos, who were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2016, become increasingly frustrated by the unresolved situation that has restricted and changed their lives as they no longer feel safe on their once near crime-free island.

See the original post:

Church on Greek island attacked by illegal immigrants - Greek City Times

Amged el-Hawrani thought he just had the flu. He thought maybe he was just a bit run down or hadnt been sleeping enough. By the time he was admitted to hospital with breathing difficulties and put on a ventilator, it was already too late. Three weeks later, he died of Covid-19. He was 55 years old.

The NHS ear, nose and throat (ENT) consultant never knew he had the virus. He was sedated long before the test came back positive, after twice coming back negative. The diagnosis until the final test result was a stubborn bilateral pneumonia. A physician to the end, his last words before being sedated were why are they taking so long, they need to intubate me.

As an ENT surgery consultant he was especially vulnerable to catching Covid-19, and was likely exposed to patients whose complaints were coronavirus-related: loss of taste and smell, breathing issues and persistent coughs. He wasnt even aware he needed protective gear, his brother Amal told me, he was just doing his job.

El-Hawrani was one of six boys whose Sudanese parents settled in the UK in 1975. Their late father, a consultant radiologist, moved to the UK to gain access to the latest equipment and research in his speciality, and passed on his passion for medicine to his eldest sons. He had no hobbies, he was always studying, always reading, he loved it, Amal recalls.

The love for the vocation extended outside of the family, as the El-Hawrani home became a hub for other Sudanese doctors in training. Those who needed advice and guidance on their professional journey, or just needed a place to stay as they did so, found refuge in the El-Hawrani home, rent free. The commitment to family and medicine was passed down. Most of my dads time was dedicated towards his family, said El-Hawranis son, Ashraf, the rest was dedicated towards his profession.

Today, the close-knit family, and the wider medical community of friends around it, cannot even seek some small comfort in mourning together. Alongside the shock of El-Hawranis death now lies the dread of the disease infecting his mother, who is in her late 70s. Her sons have isolated themselves from her and each other, and turned away mourners.

El-Hawrani was the second frontline doctor to die of the virus. The first was also of Sudanese origin; Dr Adil El Tayar, an organ transplant specialist who volunteered in an A&E department in the Midlands to help fight the virus. Two of the four children he left behind are also NHS doctors.

Following their deaths, the contributions of El-Hawrani and El Tayar and their families to our healthcare system have been held up as exemplars. Yes, they were gifted and selfless, but they were not exceptions. They were part of a community of NHS doctors all over the UK, who are foreign born, or born to immigrants.

In the 1970s and 80s, El-Hawrani and his siblings grew up in a country matter-of-factly hostile to people of colour. His younger brother Amal recalls being told by other children that he couldnt play with them because he was brown. Thirty years later, the UK is more diverse, but the antipathy towards immigrants has crept upwards, voiced by politicians instead of schoolchildren. The narrative they set for the country in general, and the NHS in particular, is that they are being drained by immigrants who put nothing in and take everything out. This was always a lie, but it has never been a more discreditable one than now.

Alongside El-Hawrani and El Tayar in the honour roll now sit Dr Alfa Saadu, who was also volunteering, this time in Hertfordshire, one of the counties worst hit by the virus; general practitioner Dr Habib Zaidi; and Areema Nasreen, an acute medical unit nurse. The numbers do, and have always told the truth: 44% of medical staff are BAME. For nurses and midwives, it is one in every five, and in some areas such as London, it is four in 10.

Not that the government has made it easy for non-EU migrant doctors to work in the UK. They have to navigate a complex maze of Home Office requirements to renew expensive work visas which are often tied to jobs which are themselves dependent on budgetary constraints. A single fallen domino in this chain ejects a sorely needed doctor from the country.

In its newfound affection for the NHS and such doctors, the government has now shown hitherto unattainable bureaucratic agility, and decided that all nurses, doctors, paramedics and healthcare professionals will have their visas automatically renewed for a year free of charge.

Many of these migrant doctors will be paying a hefty annual NHS surcharge for the privilege of using an NHS they staff, in addition to paying tax and national insurance contributions. This surcharge is set to rise from 400 to 624 a year this October. The health secretary, Matt Hancock, who in November declared that the NHS surcharge was going to be extended because its the National Health Service not the International Health Service, on Thursday saluted those NHS staffers who perished as people who came to this country to make a difference.

These are likely to be temporary face- and life-saving platitudes and measures. When its back to business as usual, when the NHS is used as a political pawn, and blame for its underfunding is placed at the feet of migrants, remember Amged El-Hawrani and all the others who fell on its frontline to save lives. Remember their names, their faces, their stories and the families they left behind. And remember that the NHS is not drained by migrants, but sustained by them.

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After this crisis, remember the NHS is not drained by migrants, but sustained by them - The Guardian

He may not have had a pandemic in mind, but Jean Monnet, the late founding father of Euro federalism, saw supranationalist opportunity in fraught times such as these. Europe will be forged in crisis and will be the sum of the solutions adopted for those crises, he said in 1976.

Another architect of the European project, former European Commission President Jacques Delors, painted a gloomier picture recently. In a rare public statement, the 94-year-old Frenchman warned that in the age of coronavirus, the climate that seems to reign among heads of state and government and the lack of European solidarity pose a mortal danger to the European Union.

You dont need to share Delorss federalism to agree with his assessment of the continents response to Covid-19, which is testing European unity to the breaking point. A pandemic is exactly the sort of thing that should necessitate greater European cooperation. Global challenges demand cross-border cooperation; national sovereignty is an anachronism in the age of globalization, mass migration, big tech, and climate change. Or so weve been told. The arrival of a borderless challenge, and perhaps the most acute crisis that the European Union has ever faced, has exposed the hollowness of these views.

Far from demonstrating the merits of pooled sovereignty, Covid-19 has so far reestablished the power of Europes national governments. Borders have gone up across the bloc, and the continents response to the virus is defined by variety, rather than unity. Sweden opted for a lax approach; Emmanuel Macron deployed the Napoleonic resources of Frances administrative state; Hungarys authoritarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbn exploited the pandemic for an outrageous constitutional power grab; and Germany tested its way into a position of comparative strength. In cases where national responses resemble one another, its because policymakers happened to alight on the same set of measures, not because of any sort of cooperation. Britains newfound freedom has proved neither an advantage nor a disadvantage in relation to Covid-19.

The level of frustration at the lack of a coordinated European response was underscored yesterday, when Mauro Ferrari resigned as president of the European Research Council. The EUs top scientist said that he was extremely disappointed by the European response to the coronavirus. I arrived at the ERC a fervent supporter of the EU, he told the Financial Times, but the Covid-19 crisis completely changed my views, though the ideals of international collaboration I continue to support with enthusiasm.

If you want to know how much solidarity is on offer from Brussels, ask the Italians. Nowhere is frustration with the EU more keenly felt than in the Wests first coronavirus hotspot. In late February, the Italian government requested assistance from other EU member states. When the EU commission activated the Civil Protection Mechanism, the formal means by which such assistance is sought, Italys neighbors failed to heed the call. More support has been forthcoming only in recent weeks, with member states lifting bans on medical-supply exports. Nonetheless, to most Italians, Covid-19 makes a hat-trick of recent crises that have exposed the sizable gap between rhetoric and reality on EU cooperation. First a debt crisis, then a migrant crisis, now a public-health crisis. According to a recent poll, 72 percent of Italians believe that the EU hasnt contributed in any way to the fight against Covid-19. Before the coronavirus crisis hit, Italian trust in the EU stood at 34 percent. Now the figure sits at just 25 percent.

Beyond concrete policy responses, the crisis has also exposed the emptiness of the shared European identity that Brussels sought to forge over the years with a flag, an anthem, citizenship, and other gimmicks. During these trying times, Europeans have turned not to Brussels but to national leaders, including the continents remaining monarchs. To some, this is just evidence of how much work remains. You can hear the echoes of Monnet in the prominent federalist Belgian MEP Guy Verhofstadt as he describes the opportunity he sees in the crisis: We should use this crisis to forge a more united and stronger Europe. Were starting this struggle from an economically and structurally disadvantaged position. If were to overcome this storm together, it has to be as one unionnot 27 individual countries.

The best hope of Covid-19 moving the EU toward an ever closer Union is on the economic front, where calls for so-called coronabondsissued by a European institution, backed by all member states, and used to fund spending on an individual member-state levelhave some momentum. Even here, though, resistance is considerable. The divide between the continents needy south and frugal northexposed during the last economic crisisappears unchanged. A coordinated European economic response, with or without coronabonds, is yet to materialize. Advocates of coronabonds argue that this time is different, not least because the coronavirus is essentially an Act of God, not a consequence of member-states past mistakes. Indeed, German newspapers that stoutly opposed generosity toward insolvent Mediterranean states a decade ago are more sympathetic today. For the time being, however, European governments are in a stalemate.

In addition to persuading member states to deliver on economic solidarity, the federalists also need to demonstrate the EUs worth as a guarantor of liberal democracy. Now that Orbn has used the coronavirus to award himself the power to rule by decree indefinitely, we will soon discover how effective the EU is at preserving the freedoms that it claims to hold dear. The mechanisms in place to do so are about to be tested like never before.

Its dangerous to see the coronavirus as the complete vindication or repudiation of any particular worldview. The pandemic has exposed weaknesses and strengths in all sorts of approaches to government. For all the EUs failures to rise to the Covid-19 challenge, it may yet prove to be the sort of crisis that Monnet predicted, from which a new, more centralized Europe emerges. But Europes federalists face two entangled uncertainties. The first is whether they can exploit Covid-19 to pool sovereignty more deeply in Brussels. The second is whether that new Europe is something that would command the support of the continents people.

Oliver Wiseman is the U.S. editor of The Critic.

Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images

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Covid-19 Has Reestablished the Power of Europe's Nat'l Governments - City Journal

Aristophanes was a comic genius long before the Marx Brothers, but he also gave good advice to the Athenians: stop the war! In his playLysistratahe had the women going on strike no more nookie until the men stopped fighting. During the plague that killed the greatest Athenian of them all, Pericles, Aristophanes advised the young to isolate, meditate and masturbate, advice still valid to this day.

Greece, with roughly the same population as Switzerland and faced with a surge of migrants turned loose by the dreaded Turks, has handled the crisis well. The American media is using the virus crisis in order to attack Trump, but the Greek people will not tolerate such craven opportunism and dishonesty. Criticism of the government is almost non-existent, as the suddenly wise populace is united against the unseen menace. God knows poor Greece has had enough thunderbolts aimed at her, starting ten years ago with the eurozones incompatible economic demands. I remember well writing an article pleading with the then prime minister, an arrogant Euro ass-licker by the name of Samaras, to return to a devalued drachma and not to sacrifice the savings and welfare of millions in order to have motorcycle escorts when entering Brussels. Like all craven cowards, he chose the motorcycles.

Recently Louis de Bernires wrote something in theTelegraphabout my birthplace that touched me. He ran into Lord Owen and the former foreign secretary told him that he had become a Leaver because of what had been done to Greece. (David Owen has a summer house in the Peloponnese.) The country that was reduced to penury by Brussels was the only one that stood beside Britain in 1940 and managed to humiliate Mussolinis troops and drive them back into Albania. While this was going on, Belgium, Holland and France had obliged the Wehrmacht and folded like a cheap accordion. Not us Greeks; my mother had five brothers (all Spartans) at the front during the first week of the war. What made Metaxas and King George and all the Greeks defy the Axis powers? (The Italians had only asked for free access to the Middle East.) After all, they had nothing to gain, and the combined Axis forces meant certain defeat. I suppose it was pride in our heroic past, and battles like Thermopylae and Marathon, that fired up the nation.

Sure, the Greeks enjoyed a free ride with EU moolah for quite a while, but we were never ready to be admitted in the first place, so why the severe punishment? Is it because we did the right thing back in 1940? Is it because we did the right thing again in 1947, when we defeated the Stalin-backed reds? Or is it because we forgave the Germans, following reparations and a decent interval, after the war? No to all three; it was because we were easy to bully and were led by midgets. Now the chickens have come home to roost, as they say in Alabama.

The reports coming out of Greece nowadays are always about the migrant crisis, one caused by the neocons in Washington and the mission accomplished victory of that halfwit George W. Bush, aided and abetted by honest Tony Blair. Now fake news of violent local reactions to the wave of migrants command foreign coverage. The crisis began five years ago and continues unabated. It has wrung every drop of generosity from a people that pride themselves on their compassion. It has led to concentration camp-like conditions on some beautiful islands and in some parts of Athens. And all this time no one from Brussels dares say a word to the Turks, or to the Americans, who are, after all, the ones responsible for a war that began in 2003 and continues to fester to this day.

There is no resolution in sight to the overflow of migrants and the possible breakout of the virus in the overcrowded camps. Turkey has become the official trafficker of migrants, while the sultans in Brussels dither and meet and dither some more and schedule more meetings. Hamlet would have fit right in with this bunch. In the meantime the public has become outraged at the lack of action on the part of those responsible. Some are even blaming international aid workers for guiding the migrants towards the islands, although there is no proof of this. I wouldnt put it past them. They did it to the Italians, so why not to the Hellenes?

Never mind. Everyone seems to have turned Turkish of late. Gotcha journalism reigns supreme in the land of the depraved, where a virus that came from bats served as a delicacy in a disgusting Chinese food market is now used as an excuse by the media to discredit Donald Trump. In the Bagel virus sufferers in overflowing hospitals have spit and cursed and threatened nurses, a news item that somehow escaped the notice of theNew York Times.

One thing is for sure: once this plague is over, national barriers might make a comeback and be seen as more than just an impediment to human freedom. A borderless world may be the dream of rich subversives such as the ghastly George Soros, but something good always emerges after a catastrophe: like never trusting the Chinese and outlawing the word globalist.

This article was originally published inThe Spectators UK magazine.Subscribe to the US edition here.

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The way Greece has conducted itself in this pandemic is an example to us all - The Spectator USA

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Wednesday cited a silver lining in the countrys efforts to battle the unprecedented crisis presented by the coronavirus outbreak while acknowledging that the decision on lifting of the nationwide lockdown after its completion on April 14 was not an easy decision to make.

Soren lauded the strength of federalism displayed by the cooperation among different states especially in dealing with the migrant crisis engendered by the announcement of 21-day national lockdown.

Hundreds of thousands of migrant workers were left without work or money after businesses in the unorganised sector, including construction, were ordered to shut shop temporarily in line with the lockdown provisions that came into effect on March 25.

Several of these migrants started a long march home on foot and had to be accommodated into temporary relief camps set up by different states to provide them food, shelter, sanitation and medical care.

The chief ministers of different states coordinated on the issue of migrants to ensure they were not left unattended. Soren referred to this while talking about the strength of federalism.

Strength of federalism has come to the fore in fight against Covid-19 pandemic, PTI quoted Soren as saying. He added that chief ministers were coordinating with each other to help out people stranded outside their home state.

Jharkhand, one of the last Indian states to report a positive case of coronavirus infection, is home to several of these migrants who were left stranded in different states including Maharashtra, Delhi, West Bengal, Karnataka and Telangana.

Most states set up facilities to ensure that none of the workers went hungry and they also offered cash relief to the daily wagers registered in their respective states. The Central government, too, announced several measures including cash transfers to additional free ration under the food security scheme to safeguard the poor from loss of income during the current crisis.

Sorens endorsement of cooperative federalism comes at a time when the Centre and the states have held several rounds of consultations and mostly worked in tandem to enforcement measures to contain the outbreak of the pandemic.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, too, lauded the work done by states while states that they were working in close coordination with the Centre.

PM Modi is set to have another meeting with chief ministers of states on Saturday, March 11, when a decision on the extension of lockdown could be taken.

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Jharkhand CM Soren cites a crisis to underscore strength of federalism in India - Hindustan Times

When Colombian President Ivn Duques government closed the countrys border with Venezuela on March 14, its move was aimed at reducing the risk of the coronavirus spreading into the nation from its troubled neighbor. Two weeks later, that decision appears to have spawned a different consequence merely making it even more dangerous and exploitative for Venezuelan migrants seeking to escape their country.

Desperate to flee or at least access Colombias health services and food supplies, Venezuelan migrants are now paying illegal armed groups for passage through dangerous informal border crossings. Known locally as trochas, these crossings are spread along the 1,379-mile border between Colombia and Venezuela.

Since 2016, Venezuelans have crossed into Colombia to escape their crippled economy, which left their public health service in ruin and created shortages of food and basic medical supplies. Today, 1.7 million Venezuelan migrants and refugees reside in Colombia.Most of them came legally, with Colombia keeping its borders open longer than most Latin American nations even as the migration became a flood last year.

There are thousands entering through the trochas on a daily basis, and thats not going to be stopped easily.

Eduardo Espinel, Venezuelans in Cucuta Foundation

But since the border closure OZY was the first to report on the increasing likelihood of that move a growing body of evidence suggests Venezuelan migrants trying to leave their country are using trochas to get into Colombia. On one occasion, 60 riot police were sent to an area near Cucuta, a Colombian border town, after an instance of illegal migration. Experts and observers say thousands of Venezuelans might be crossing over every day. And other reports suggest migrants are now paying up to 100,000 pesos ($25 U.S.) to cross the trochas and around 25,000 pesos ($6 U.S.) for guides to help them reach the other side. In effect, the border closure has merely pushed what is the largest migrant crisis in the Americas Venezuelans leaving their nation underground, potentially making it even harder to manage.

Its impossible that the [Colombian] authorities can control all the people that are leaving, says Eduardo Espinel, director of the Venezuelans in Cucuta Foundation. Although the border is closed, there are thousands entering through the trochas on a daily basis, and thats not going to be stopped easily.

Some Venezuelans are leaving their country out of fear others to buy food or for medical appointments for diseases like diabetes, cancer and HIV, with treatment facilities scant in Venezuela.

In the past, Venezuela has closed its border with Colombia, but those instances were during political disputes never during a crisis of the scale of the coronavirus pandemic. Border closures on those occasions werent enforced very strictly, say experts. On this occasion, the Colombian government is generally trying to make an effort through the armed forces to enforce the border closure, says Marianne Menjivar, Colombia and Venezuela country director for the International Rescue Committee. The nature of what were facing now is different.

But while the number of people crossing over has reduced, they seem to be getting through, Menjivar adds. And crossing through the trochas presents high risks for vulnerable migrants.

Forstarters, they have to pay. Women are at high risk of rape, she says. Somecross wading through rivers, holding onto ropes. If it rains, the rivers grow,making these crossings even more dangerous.

Oxford University researcher Dr. Julia Zulver, who has worked extensively on the border areas in Colombia, shares Menjivars concerns. What we know about these [trochas] is that they have a strong presence of armed actors who, when it comes to women and girls, often engage in sexual violence, Zulver says. These are dangerous and precarious places for people to be.

Eira Gonzalez, a journalist on the Venezuelan side of the arid La Guajira region in Northern Colombia, says she has seen thousands of Venezuelans with children in their arms asking what are we going to do? in Paraguachon, the main border town in La Guajira, after the border closure. Gonzalez used the trochas herself for her work.

For the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) think tank, the decision to close the border was inhumane.

It may be justified, but its undoable, says Gimena Snchez-Garzoli, WOLAs Andes director. They should treat vulnerable Venezuelans humanely and with special attention given the public health crisis [in Venezuela].

But Felipe Muoz, thegovernments border manager, tells OZY the decision was not taken lightly andthat it is not for xenophobic reasons but for other sanitary and public healthreasons.

There is nothing against any nationality, because 44 percent of the people who cross the border are Colombian, Muoz says. He acknowledges the border closure is clearly not a perfect measure but adds that the move was made after consultations with the Pan American Health Organization that helped them correspond with the Venezuelan government.The two governments broke diplomatic ties last year.

Indeed, Colombia is battling its own, fast-expanding coronavirus crisis. The country had 798 confirmed cases as of Tuesday. Colombia has now barred entry to all travelers from abroad. All public events have been canceled, and schools, bars and nightclubs have been closed. In a state of emergency announcement last week, an obligatory isolation was ordered for the elderly the most susceptible to the virus to stay at home until May 31.And last Thursday, Duque announced a mandatory quarantine (with people allowed to leave houses only to buy essentials like food and medicines) until April 13. Fourteen people have died so far from the virus in Colombia.

But the illegal entry of Venezuelan migrants through the trochas could further complicate Colombias own challenges too. And it wont be easy to manage, say experts. The working relationship that health authorities between the two countries are about to develop is marred in mistrust on both sides, says Sergio Guzmn, director of Colombia Risk Analysis. Neither Venezuelan health authorities nor its political leaders have credibility with their Colombian counterparts, which is likely to stem the flow of information at a critical time.

And things could get worse, he warns. For now, Venezuela has reported only 135 cases. But as the disease outbreak gets worse in that country, its broken health care system could turn what began as a trickle at the illegal border crossings into a flood, he suggests.

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Coronavirus Pushes Biggest Migration in the Americas Underground - OZY

epa08268824 Asylum seekers, who have disembarked in the last four days on Lesvos Island, wait in line in a guarded spot of the port of Mytilene, to receive food, Lesvos island, Greece, 04 March 2020. The newly arrived asylum seekers will be transported not to the refugee camp of Moria but to a closed type refugee camp in mainland Greece. EPA-EFE/ORESTIS PANAGIOTOU

The move was a first step by Germany, officials said, as worries mount about the health situation in the Greek camps due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Tens of thousands of migrants tried to get into European Union member Greece after Turkey said in February it would no longer prevent them from doing so, as agreed in a 2016 deal with the EU in return for aid for Syrian refugees.

Greece has described conditions in the camps on some of its islands, where more than 40,000 asylum seekers are now stuck during the coronavirus crisis, as a ticking health bomb.

Germanys interior ministry said on Tuesday it aimed to begin the transfer of unaccompanied minors next week from Greece, which has been the main gateway into the EU for people fleeing conflict in the Middle East and beyond.

On arrival in Germany, the young people will be placed in quarantine for two weeks before they are divided up across Germany, the ministry said, adding that other EU states had agreed to similar measures.

While the rush to the border in March met a strong response from Greek security forces, tensions have largely settled since the outbreak of the new coronavirus prompted Turkey to close its borders with Greece and Bulgaria.

Greece is urging the EU to help during the coronavirus crisis and has said it is ready to protect its islands, where no cases have so far been recorded.

Athens quarantined a migrant camp on the mainland after 23 asylum seekers tested positive for the coronavirus. (Reporting by Madeline Chambers and Holger Hansen; Editing by Alexander Smith)

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Germany agrees to take in 50 young migrants from Greek islands - Daily Maverick

As Covid-19 continues its spread across the world, the pandemic will disproportionately affect the worlds most vulnerable populations, among them asylum seekers, refugees, internally displaced peoples and migrant workers. The world must turn its attention to respond to this global crisis in a way that recognises the acute challenges these communities face.

The entire world is gripped by the current coronavirus pandemic. From Lombardy to New York and Wuhan to Bogota, all global resources- from governments, businesses and individuals- are being redirected to fight the spread of Covid-19. Even healthcare systems in developed economies are under immense strain, overwhelmed almost to their breaking point with hundreds of thousands of patients needing emergency care and rising deaths.

For many of us, the experience of this pandemic is like none other half of the world is on lockdown, those of us who can are working from home and we have perhaps never been as worried about health and safety before. But for the vulnerable sections of global society refugees, asylum seekers, migrant workers, displaced peoples and low-income earners the gripping concerns about life or death are an everyday reality that Covid-19 has only intensified.

For these groups, the pandemic will undoubtedly make their lives even more challenging than they were before, exacerbating almost every threat they already face in terms of access to healthcare, sanitation, food, income, shelter and education. In East Asia alone, the recession will keep at least 24 million living on US$5.50 per day. The pandemic isnt just a global health crisis it is a humanitarian emergency for millions of people around the world.

This including people right here on our doorstep in Hong Kong. Already one of the most unequal cities in the world, marginalised groups in Hong Kong have for months been facing additional difficulties resulting from the economic downturn, from pay cuts to loss of employment altogether all of which will only work to deepen existing social inequalities and trap poverty-stricken groups.

In the immediate term, many people from marginalised groups struggle to afford personal protective equipment, like masks and hand sanitiser. This is an unforeseen expense that they now have to assume, with little wiggle room in their budgets, explains Victoria Wisniewski Otero, Founder & CEO of Resolve Foundation, a Hong Kong-based charity. Low-income or on-call gig workers, many of whom are unable to work from home, are forced to sacrifice their health if they cannot afford resources to protect them from the virus.

And while many of us have the privilege of social distancing in our homes, for Hong Kongs poorer members of society, their housing is cramped and uncomfortable, if they even have a roof over their head at all, Otero adds.

Hong Kong is also home to a huge migrant worker population, with migrant domestic workers alone representing close to 10% of the citys total working population. While policies put in place to curb the spread of the virus are crucial to help flatten the curve of Covid-19, many of them, such as social distancing and bans on large gatherings may put their labour rights in jeopardy. For asylum seekers in the city, they face the additional threat of lacking access to any medical care at all.

While the Hong Kong government has launched initiatives to help boost the economy and alleviate some of the social impacts of the pandemic, almost all of the funds that have been put forthhave restrictions that limit access by minority communities, especially people like domestic workers or asylum seekers with visa restrictions, said David Bishop, co-founder of nonprofit Migrasia and Principal Lecturer at the University of Hong Kong.

In India, the second most populous country in the world, 1.3 billion people are officially on lockdown, the biggest quarantine effort implemented by any government. The Indian economy itself is made up of local communities that power its marketplaces, farms and warehouses, the backbone of which is a massive informal sector that makes up 80% of the countrys non-agricultural employment, including migrant labourers who rely on daily wages.

Not only have 92% of the migrant day labourers already lost their incomes as a result of the economic fallout from the pandemic, they were given only 24 hours to return to their homes in time for the full country lockdown curfew. This was basically impossible for most of them, given that a vast majority come from far-away villages and given that transportation routes were cut off anyway. For many, it is a life-or-death journey on foot, a risky gamble that can mean facing police beatings, starvation and dehydration. At least 20 migrant workers have already died as they make their way home, hundreds of kilometres away.

Similar hardships are felt by the majority of the 7 million migrant labourers across Southeast Asia. Wealthy expatriates can choose whether they stay in their place, or to go, and often if they are passport holders of advanced economies, governments may even help them fly home. But faced with no wages, industrial workers, domestic servants and garment labourers have to choose between sleeping where they work in cramped conditions, without access to clean water, potentially running out of food rations or to attempt to make the journey home, where upon their arrival they will be faced with similar overcrowded conditions, the perfect hotbed for the spreading of the pandemic.

Then there are the hidden victims refugees and displaced people. In a recent statement, Henrietta Fore, the chief of UNICEF, said that there are 31 million children who are torn away from their homes, 17 million of which are internally displaced, 12.7 million are refugees and 1.1 million are asylum seekers. Most of them cannot call a doctor if they become sick, cannot wash their hands whenever they need to, and physical distancing is simply impossible in the swarming camps where they currently reside.

Many camps are already in a race against a ticking time-bomb. In Malakasa and Ritsona, two of 30 refugee facilities in Greece, several cases of people displaying symptoms of the virus have been detected. If left uncontained, a full-blown outbreak in camps would send the human cost of the pandemic further into unchartered territory.

Many of these individuals are separated from their families and away from their country of origin, their physical and emotional needs must not be forgotten, said Archana Kotecha, the Asia Region Director and Head of Legal at Liberty Shared, an anti-trafficking NGO.

Aside from the devastating loss of lives, the human impact of this pandemic on vulnerable migrants, refugees and the undocumented is likely to be a heightened risk of exploitation. Poor access to already strained healthcare services and no access to social welfare causes a crystallisation of vulnerabilities driven by the need to survive in exceptionally difficult times, explains Kotecha.

Recently, the United Nations launched a major humanitarian fund worth US$2 billion to lead a global response plan to some of the worlds most vulnerable countries. The appeal seeks to protect millions of people around the world who are most at risk of the coronavirus itself, and the consequential impacts of efforts to contain the pandemic.

The fund will help kickstart global governmental efforts to respond to the acute challenges that vulnerable groups face. But this is only the beginning, and all of us have a responsibility to step in to do what we can.

Otero believes that those of us who have the privilege to remain at home without huge financial strains should do their part. There are existing drives by civil society groups to organise distribution campaigns and initiatives to support the homeless. Now is the time to pledge your support. Become a monthly giver to NGOs, giving them a stable source of income. During so much uncertainty, this sends a great message, she said, adding that when the wellbeing of vulnerable groups is safeguarded, we all benefit collectively as a society.

The world is undoubtedly shaken by the pandemic, but some are and will continue to bear a much heavier burden as the crisis continues. For those of us on the fortunate side of the world, we must acknowledge our unique responsibility to give and support others in any way we can right now. Historys judgement will not be kind should we foresake compassion and aid for the voiceless amongst us during this unprecedented global crisis.

Lead image courtesy of Rajesh Kumar Singh / AP.

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What About Migrants And Refugees? The Stark Reality Faced By The Worlds Displaced During Covid-19 - Green Queen Media